A glass-half-full type of tourism season is what the owners of Priest Creek Family Estate Winery in Kelowna, B.C., are desperately hoping for after the last two summer seasons.
“We’ve been down,” said winery owner Darren Sawin. “We’re really lacking the tourists.”
Sawin largely attributes the slower-than-normal seasons to the provincial restrictions on short-term rentals implemented in early 2024.
But some of those restrictions could be eased — or least that is what the city is hoping for.
On Monday, city council voted in favour of a motion to pave the way for it to request a partial exemption to permit short-term rentals in eligible buildings, primarily intended for that purpose.
“It’s a good start,” Sawin said. “It’s going to really help us as a tourist town bring in some more places for people to stay, stuff like that, but you know it’s still not how it used to be.”
If approved, the exemption would allow stratas of buildings like Discovery Bay and the new Aqua highrise to apply if interested, now that the rental vacancy rate has gone up significantly.
“It seems only fair to allow some of the buildings that were intended to be short-term rentals to go back to it, you know, after they were sort of cut off by the province,” said Kelowna deputy mayor Rick Webber.
While council wants to see a partial exemption, it opted not to consider a full one.
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Webber said the city must strike a balance between short-term and long-term housing.
“It’s been tough work getting the vacancy rate up to more normal levels and we don’t want to undo all the work we’ve done by having short-term rentals spread throughout the city,” Webber said. “And I don’t know if a lot of Kelowna residents want that.”
Council also passed a resolution to try and lobby the province to fast-track the process and exemption, as a final approval would not be granted until November 2026.
The city is hoping it happens sooner than that, not only ahead of the upcoming tourism season but also to accommodate some major events slated for Kelowna in the coming months, including the Memorial Cup, the B.C. Summer Games and two CFL games.
“The city is working hard to bring all these great events and bring tourists to town,” Webber said. “So we need to open up more spaces for guests to stay.”
When asked whether the Ministry of Housing would consider fast-tracking the exemption process, it stated in part, “A municipality is required to have two consecutive years of a vacancy rate of over 3 per cent before they can apply to opt out.”
In Kelowna’s case, that wouldn’t be until late 2026 at the earliest.
At Priest Creek winery, it’s hoped the province makes an exception.
“It would be life-saving for a lot of our local businesses , our local restaurants, our wineries, anybody that has built a business around tourism,” Sawin said.
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